Jill, Sonya and me in her room at UCSF.
Jill and I went to visit our friend, Sonya Haggett, at UCSF on Christmas Eve.
She was hospitalized, a few days before that, because she is suffering from pneumonia which was caused by cystic fibrosis. Sadly, she had to spend her 40th birthday in the hospital instead of out partying. In classic Sonya style she had a party after she got out anyway. 🙂
She has now been hospitalized 8 times in the past 13 months and yet doesn’t seem to ever give up hope or become negative about her life events.
Sonya is one of the first people I met when I started salsa dancing about 14 years ago.
There was a dedicated little crew of us, that all went to Allegro Ballroom in Emeryville, CA, and a lot of us have stayed friends even if we no longer dance as much as before.
The salsa community seems to be very tight and connected and a lot of them have stepped up to help Sonya in her battle against this disease.
Jill had met Sonya once before we left and they had hit it off immediately. This was the first time we’d have been able to see her since we left for China and we were incredibly excited about that even though we were bummed that she was back in the hospital.
Before we arrived, we asked if we could get her lunch and suggested Yellow Submarine because it is a local place and their sandwiches are incredible. She agreed and we ordered pastrami sandwiches and picked them up before we saw her.
We were so happy to see her and gave each other long hugs. It had been way too long and it seemed as if it was also only yesterday since I had seen her.
We talked about life, what had been happening with her, how she copes and continues to stay strong, and our time in China.
It was wonderful to see her. After a while, her cousin, Eric, showed up and we decided to give them time alone to talk. He was nice enough to take this picture of us.
Here is my request: Sonya will be receiving new lungs, as soon as possible, and that is all paid for by insurance. HOWEVER, she will “be married” to UCSF for the 8 weeks after that transplant and that ISN’T paid for by insurance. She will need about $35,000 to pay for it. At this point, she has about $28,000 so she is close but not close enough.
If, in any way, you would like to donate to Cota in support of Sonya, please do and then and share this blog post. I am certain we can help her and give her a wonderful holiday/birthday gift.
Trust me, Sonya deserves it.
The website is COTA and all you have to do is click this link COTA FOR SONYA and click on donate online.
We thank you in advance.